Citation

Vallgårda S. Scand. J. Public Health 2011; 39(7): 773-775.

Affiliation

Unit of Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Associations of Public Health in the Nordic Countries Regions, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1403494811421978

PMID

21948978

Abstract

The concept lifestyle disease is used about a number of different diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, lung cancer etc. The concept indicates that people's behaviours cause the diseases. This is only partly true. All diseases, both so-called lifestyle diseases and infectious diseases, have multiple causes. Singling out only one type of causes, such as is implied in the concept of lifestyle diseases can lead prevention to focus only on changing people s behaviours or lifestyles, and thus to neglect other possibilities to improve health. Mortality due to chronic diseases has increased during the last century and the main cause behind this is the decrease in the mortality in infectious diseases among younger people. More people live long enough to develop the chronic diseases. The concept lifestyle disease gives a too narrow picture of causes death and should be abandoned and give place for a broader understanding of causes and preventive options.

Language: en